Tied Together With a Smile
by MidnightBlue-x
Summary: After leaving her small French magic academy, Coralie Bennett starts at Hogwarts with her younger brother, all hoping for a fresh start and a new life. Little does she know that the people her family are running away from have close ties in England, too... Secrets, lies and heart-ache follow her, but so do close friendships and a family stronger than she realises.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: The OC's and parts of the plot are all that belong to me. Everything else belongs to J.K Rowling, I do not claim ownership to it. Thank you for reading.**

The air was escaping from her lungs at a fast speed. Her eyesight became dizzy and blurred, her surroundings switching between focused and unfocused every second. The sounds around her were fading into the distance, as were her brothers ahead of her – they seemed miles away. She wanted to scream out to them, beg them for help, but her throat was closing in on itself, making it impossible to swallow, let alone speak. Her legs had become like jelly, wobbling all over the place, resulting in her being pushed and pulled in all directions as the crowd moved around her.

A boy's face came into focus beside her, but he quickly disappeared back into the crowd. There was another push forward, and it brought the blackness with it. She tumbled down onto the cobbles. There was yelling around her, but she couldn't make out any of the words, no matter how hard she tried. By the time her blackness had faded away, the yelling had too. It was then she noticed hands resting on her shoulders, a familiar roughness. She tried to move, tried to see who the hands belonged to, but she found that she couldn't. Her legs stung, and her eyes focused for long enough for her to notice the blood covering her knees and the hem of her new summer dress. Her mother would surely kill her for this.

"Coralie?" a voice asked, breaking her from her reverie. Her eyes flickered towards the speaker, a dull ache in her head forcing her to groan and shut her eyes again quickly.

"Is she okay?" another voice asked – a sweet, soft one that didn't sound familiar at all. She wanted to answer that she was fine, although she realised that her response probably wouldn't be taken as the truth at this point. Most teenage girls didn't randomly fall over in public places after losing their vision – though they'd only been in England for two weeks, so maybe they did here. "Do you want me to heal her?"

"No," Coralie whispered, finally finding her voice. She was silent for a moment, unsure as to whether or not the people around her had heard her at all, or whether it was just in her mind. Her vision returned, and Coralie was able to see the crowd that was now surrounding her. On her right, clearly the one who had spoken, was a redhead girl, her bright green eyes gazing worriedly down at Coralie. Beside her was a short girl, her long brown hair tied neatly up in a ponytail, and a selection of bags completely surrounding her. Both girls looked her age, though a few adults had stopped to see what was going on. On her left was Angus, her little brother; his blonde hair was all messed up, probably from pulling at it like he often did when he was nervous about something. Coralie managed to roll her head back, and her older brother, Jacob, sent her a small smile.

"Are you sure? Your knees are pretty banged up," the girl added, her eyebrows rising slightly. Coralie shook her head, immediately regretted it, and shuffled back slightly so that she was able to sit up.

"We should get home." Coralie turned her head to face Angus and Jacob, both of whom turned to face one another and shared a look before looking back at her. "Mother will fix my knees. She'll be wondering where we are, anyway."

"Fine. Let's get you up, and we'll get the Knight Bus home. I don't think you should be Side-Along Apparating or using Floo Powder quite yet." Jacob sighed, standing up before grabbing onto Coralie's arms and pulling her up too. His arms tightened around her waist, Angus doing the same on her opposite side before the three of them headed down the street, Coralie awkwardly hobbling to avoid the shopping bags the boys were holding as they swung into the backs of her legs.

* * *

"I told you weren't ready to go out somewhere so busy, but you never listen to me, do you?"

Coralie winced, jumping back slightly in an attempt to free her leg from her mother's hold, but her mother didn't let up. The wet cloth has taken off Coralie's knees and washed, the blood turning the water a dark red, and then placed back on.

"And you two!" Marcelle Bennett's vicious blue eyes turned to Angus and Jacob. "Why did you two walk off without her? You knew the state that your sister's been in for the last couple of weeks – you should have kept a better eye on her. You especially, Jacob! You're supposed to be looking after Coralie, or did you forget that she's younger than you again?"

"She only fell over, Mother! You're making it sound like she was run over by a pack of bulls or mugged by a bunch of hooligans or something!" Angus let out a small snort at this, but he covered it with a cough when their mother's eyes caught his gaze.

"You know very well that Coralie didn't just fall over. It was another –"

"Mother," Coralie interrupted, her eyes flashing dangerously at Marcelle, though the latter took no notice of her daughter.

"You know how bad they have been lately, another –"

"Mother, please don't bring this up," Coralie pleaded, moving the cloth off her knees and dropping it back into the bucket; it splashed out, hitting the carpet and Marcelle's dress, but she still paid no mind to it.

"I just think that maybe we shouldn't send Coralie away to this school while she's still having these vicious panic attacks. What happens if she suffers one there? We can't just turn up there and make sure she's all right every single time it happens." Marcelle turned to Coralie now, her eyes softening. "Maybe it would be best if you just stayed here with me, until we can be absolutely sure that you're feeling better."

"It's not just any school, Mother – it's Hogwarts. She'll be safe there. Besides, she won't be completely alone. Angus will be there too, and he knows how to look after Coralie just as well as the rest of us do," Jacob said. "Besides, you can't keep her here forever. We don't know when these attacks will stop, but she has to get into a routine, remember? That's what Healer Perkins said."

"Clearly not all of us," Marcelle muttered under her breath. She used her hands to push herself off the carpet and dusted down her dress. "Let's not discuss this now, anyway. I'm going to put on the kettle and make us a nice cup of tea – I bought some little cakes for us to have, too. Now, Cora, you go change your dress. Put that one in the wash and I'll get the blood out later." She helped Coralie up, set her steady on her feet, and moved towards the kitchen. "Oh, Angus, dear, help Cora up the stairs. Her knees are going to be a bit stiff."

"What was it this time?" Angus asked after Jacob disappeared upstairs in a huff; he was probably off to play his guitar in his room with his door locked. Despite being twenty-two years old, he still acted like more of a child than Angus did most of the time, and Angus was only fourteen.

"I don't know," Coralie answered. "I was fine one minute, and then suddenly I couldn't breathe or see. I tried to call out to you, but I couldn't form the words at all." Angus sighed in response, lifting Coralie's arm over his shoulder as they moved up the first stair.

"You weren't thinking about that night, were you?"

When Coralie didn't respond, Angus sighed, turning his head away from his sister for a moment. "You promised Mum and Jacob that you wouldn't. You remember that Healer Perkins said that it would only make things worse. If you don't get better, then Father will get his way, and you'll get put in hospital until you're actually better. England was supposed to be the escape."

"I know," snapped Coralie. She clenched her fists before letting out a deep breath to calm herself down. "I know," she whispered softly this time. "I didn't mean to think about it. There were just so many people around us, and they were getting so close. I thought I could hear music in my head. I kept seeing flashes of gowns around me. I thought I saw him."

"Cora." Angus stopped; they had now moved up to the first landing of the stairs. "He wasn't there. He can't be. He's still in France – Monsieur and Madame Melot are sure of it. Emma's sure that she's seen him snooping around the gardens. We're safe here. You're safe here."

Coralie let out a sigh, letting her eyes flutter closed for a moment before she reopened them. She tried to smile for him; she was worried that this whole experience had made her baby brother grow up faster than he ever should have. It only felt like hours ago that the two of them has been chasing each other through the gardens of their home – not this unfamiliar one in England, but their childhood home back in France. Their real home.

"I know I shouldn't worry. I know it's just making it worse, but there's this nagging sense in the back of my mind that's always telling me to look behind me, because he's there and there's no possible way I can escape from him." They finally reached the top of the stairs and continued slowly down the hallway towards Coralie's new bedroom. Coralie had the last bedroom on the floor, the furthest one away from the stairs, though it had the best view of the house; it was times like this that made it a slight inconvenience.

It was quite a big room, not the same size as her childhood room, but not small by any means. There were huge windows – not quite floor-to-ceiling, but close enough – and they showed off the modest gardens (Marcelle hadn't had any time to put her magical gardening fingers to the task yet), as well as rows of paddocks as far as the eye could see. The room itself was nothing spectacular, not yet. The boxes from the move still sat packed up in the far corner of the room, and only a few things had been taken out to make the place look like it had been lived in. After Coralie left for school in a week's time, the room would be properly decorated for her return at Christmas.

Coralie's new school was called Hogwarts. Compared to her old school, Saint Jeanne, it was a very large school – a castle, in fact. Saint Jeanne's had been in a converted _maison_, a little white townhouse, with three levels and big windows in each of the classrooms. It lay on the outskirts of the city of Orléans, southwest of Paris, while Hogwarts was in an Unplottable location somewhere in Scotland. Coralie's three older siblings – Allisyn, Jacob, and Violet – had all attended Saint Jeanne's. Before them, their father had also attended the school. Marcelle, however, had attended Beauxbatons Academy of Magic in southern France, though it had been too far away from Orléans for Marcelle's liking. But now, Hogwarts would be even further away from Buckinghamshire, where they had moved only to two weeks prior.

Coralie had just taken a seat on her bed when her mother appeared carrying a tray that held a teapot, two cups, some milk, and two strawberry tarts, Coralie's absolute favourite dessert. She placed them on the bed beside Coralie and took a seat on the other side. Angus sent his sister a reassuring smile as he left the room.

"I understand that you're eager to get back into a routine – or, rather, make a new routine here," her mother said. "But you have to be careful not to push yourself so far, _ma cherie_. I think today showed us that maybe you aren't quite ready yet, that you need to slip back into reality a little slower. Hogwarts is going to be too much for you right now, I think. You could start later, or we can find somewhere smaller. I'm just worried about you, Cora." She reached over the teapot and placed her hand comfortingly on Coralie's before drawing back to pour them both a cup of tea.

"Mama," she whispered softly. "Mama, I need start a new life here in England. That's why you brought us here, so that we could all start over. You need to let me give this a go. I need to make new friends, and new memories, and I need to be at Hogwarts for that. I'm not going to get any better if you don't let me try."

"Coralie, darling – what happens if you have another attack during class? You'll be surrounded by strangers who don't know you. Look what happened today – not even your brothers could stop it." Marcelle took a sip of her tea, and her eyes watched her daughter inquisitively over the brim of the cup.

"Mama, I know that you love me and that's why you're worrying so much. But I will try to be better. If I don't have an attack at all this week, will you still let me go?" Coralie pleaded, stealing a strawberry off the top of her tart and popping it into her mouth. "Please, Mama, I really want to fit in here," she added when Marcelle did not respond.

"_Ma cherie_," Marcelle started with a sigh. "I will let you go, but you must show me that you'll be all right there by yourself. If you can't, or if you change your mind, we will find you somewhere else."

* * *

Coralie took in a deep breath. She was unsure whether she'd ever be able to get used to the odd smell that came along with London. It wasn't that it smelt completely terrible or something (though it didn't smell wonderful either) – it just smelt different. She took in the scene around her: King's Cross Station, Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, September first, 10:47 a.m.

She was more tired than she would have liked to admit, and it was causing her eyes to focus and blur at random intervals. She'd been excited last night, but more than anything, she'd been worried. The last week she'd put on a charade, pretended to be a lot better than she actually felt. She felt so desperate for this day to arrive and then last night, reality had dawned on her. Her mother still believed her to be feeling well, though she had questioned the dark circles Coralie had sported that morning. She seemed to believe the excitement of her youngest daughter to be the reason.

In reality, it was the usual nightmares that had been keeping her awake all night. Flashes of that night – his face was like that one embarrassing moment that your mind just refuses to let you forget. Sometimes the memories were real, and sometimes they'd been distorted by her mind into something even more terrifying than the actual ordeal – she hadn't known that it was possible. Jacob had silenced the room at night, all part of the charade for Marcelle. Sometimes Coralie wondered whether he thought that she was actually getting better, and then she remembered how observant he could be.

It didn't really matter now. Her mother had believed it, and here she was, standing on the platform, her trunk sitting beside her as she and Angus were hugged, kissed, and lectured over and over. Each lecture was slightly different: Marcelle warned them about looking after each other, Allisyn told them not to get into trouble (not that the two of them ever did), and Jacob told them to get into as much trouble as they possibly could. Violet stood to the side and watched them with a bored look in her eyes. If there was anyone in the Bennett family that was unexcited by their spontaneous move to England, it was Violet. Then again, sometimes Coralie wondered whether there was anything in the world that Violet actually liked other than clothes and make-up.

"Now, you send us a little every Sunday. I want to know what's happened in the week, how you've been feeling, whether you've have any attacks – even just a glimpse of one. You need to tell me about it. Now quick – onto the train you go!" Marcelle called, kissing Coralie and Angus on both cheeks once more before frantically pushing them towards the train, though it didn't leave for another ten minutes.

"We'll see you all at Christmas," Coralie smiled, hugging Allisyn once more. "And in the letters that we'll send you every Sunday," Coralie added as Marcelle sent her a sharp look. With these words, it disappeared, and was replaced by a glassy look in her mother's eyes. She pulled out a napkin from her pocket and dabbed at them. Angus sent Coralie a nervous glance, pulling her onto the train before the waterworks began – once Marcelle started, there was no way of telling when she'd stop.

"Let's go find a compartment. This trunk is getting ridiculously hard to pull along," Angus complained, leading the way down the hallway of the train in search of a compartment. They eventually managed to find one, though it had two girls sitting in it, both laughing at something. They looked up when the door opened.

"I'm sorry – do you mind if my brother and I sit here?" Coralie asked. Both girls shrugged, and one of them, a girl with very dark brown hair, patted the spot beside her. Coralie lifted her trunk onto the railing above and took the seat.

"You must be new here. I haven't seen you before."

Coralie nodded. The girl smiled broadly and held out her hand. "I'm Kiki Soho. Welcome to Hogwarts!"

"I'm Coralie Bennett, and that's my little brother, Angus. We just moved to England."

"Oh, how exciting! Where are you from originally?" asked the other girl. She sat forward on her chair as if Coralie was about to tell her some super-classified secret or something. A little bit of her short brown hair fell into her eyesight and she quickly tucked it behind her ear.

"Oh, we're from France."

Both girls' eyes lit up immediately; they shared a smile between the two of them. "Paris?" Kiki asked, her eyes glistening as she spoke. The smile on her face grew wider.

"Orléans, actually."

Kiki's smile dimmed slightly. "That's not that far from Paris, though, is it?" Coralie shook her head, and the other girl smiled.

"Kiki here has this obsession with Paris. It goes with her obsession for boys."

"There's nothing wrong with liking boys, thank you very much," Kiki replied in a snappish tone. The smile on her face returned as she turned to Coralie and winked. "Especially French boys, right, Coralie?" Coralie blushed slightly in response.

"I'm so sorry that Kiki here is the first person you've had to meet at Hogwarts. I promise we aren't all as crazy as her. I'm Miranda, by the way. Miranda Perry. Kiki and I are in Gryffindor – I assume you've learnt about the houses?" Miranda smiled again.

"Uh, yes. I read _Hogwarts, A History_ before I came here to make sure I knew the basics," Coralie replied with a slight nod.

"Oh, Merlin. Another bookworm? Lily is just going to love you, dear," Kiki said, rolling her eyes slightly and leaning back against the chair as if she had lost interest in Coralie.

"She's referring to our friend Lily Evans," said Miranda. "She reads a lot. Kiki seems to think that reading is some kind of disease or something, so that's why she never does it." Kiki snorted but made no defense against her friend's comment. "Our other friends should be here soon – there's Lily, obviously, and Marlene, Mary, Alice, and Shelena. We're all in Gryffindor sixth-years. What about you two? What year will you be going into?"

"Fourth year for me, sixth for Cora," Angus said. Miranda sent him a wide smile before turning to Coralie.

"That's wonderful! Hopefully we'll get to share some classes. Oh, and Angus – you should look out for Ness Perry in your year. She's my little cousin. Lovely girl, and she'll help you if you need anything at all. In fact, she should be in the compartment two doors down, if you want to meet her. I'll go introduce you, if you'd like?"

Angus nodded, following Miranda out of the compartment, pulling his trunk along behind him again. The two of them had only just left when a redheaded girl entered the compartment, followed by two blondes. It took Coralie a moment, but by the time the three girls had sat down, she realised that this was the same girl who had been in Diagon Alley.

"Oh, hello!" one of the blondes exclaimed; her eyes had widened slightly as she noticed Coralie. "I don't think we've met before. I'm Marlene McKinnon. And you are?"

"Oh, Marls, how did you not notice my lovely new friend? Her name is Coralie Bennett," Kiki cut in before Coralie had the chance to say anything. She leant towards Marlene, and with a smirk, she added, "She's from France. Just moved here." Marlene looked her over once before smiling. "Those two are Lily and Mary," Kiki added, turning to Coralie and motioning towards the other two girls.

"I just saw the blonde hair and thought she was Shelena," Marlene said. Coralie watched the redhead –Lily – tense a little at the name, though none of her other friends did.

She took the seat next to Coralie. "Speaking of Shelena, has anyone seen her? Or Alice, for that matter?"

"Probably off with their boyfriends or something," Mary said, rolling her eyes. "You know, because they never saw them during the holidays or anything."

"Shelena's not with Black," Lily stated before turning to Coralie. "What school did you go to before Hogwarts?"

"How do you know that, Lils?" Marlene asked, her eyebrows furrowing.

"Uh, Saint Jeanne's Academy in Orléans," Coralie replied uncertainly; Lily had not taken her eyes off her, nor had she acknowledged her friend's question.

"Jeanne? As in Joan of Arc?" Lily asked. Coralie nodded. "Oh, what sorts of classes did you take there? What classes are you going to take here?"

"Lily, give the girl some time to breathe," Miranda teased, plopping back into her previous seat.  
"She was probably off snogging Potter and happened to notice Black there, all by himself," she said, answering Marlene's question. All of sudden, Lily's faced turned bright red.

"I was not 'off snogging Potter,' as you put it," she exclaimed indignantly before managing to calm herself down. "I was talking to Remus, and he said that Shelena hadn't turned up to see Black yet. He wouldn't talk about why when Remus asked."

"You don't think they've had another fight, do you?" Mary asked worriedly, biting down on her lip. "Did you ask when you visited her over the holidays?"

"I didn't see her these holidays – you know we had that argument before we got off last year. I figured she was being her usual self and was refusing to apologise, and I sure as hell wasn't going to."

"But then?"

"But then nothing. I didn't even walk past her house at all. Now, can we please move on to a different subject? I'm sure she'll turn up in the middle of dinner, causing some big scene, like she usually does."

"How could you not walk past her house at all these holidays? Don't you have to in order to get, like, anywhere? Did you stay home the entire holiday?" Marlene cut in.

"Honey, that's actually really sad if you did. You should have come partying with me!" Kiki exclaimed.

"I just didn't have a reason to go that way anymore, so can we please stop it? And I'll have you know I didn't spend my entire time home – I went out with Alice a few times, and my parents took me down to the beach a few times." Lily paused for a moment, as if thinking something over, and then turned to Coralie with a puzzled expression on her face. "I knew I'd seen you before! You were in Diagon Alley with your brothers last week, weren't you?"

Coralie's heart began to race – she'd been hoping that Lily wouldn't remember her, at least for a little while. How on earth was she supposed to make friends if they all thought she was some freak who fainted all the time?

"How on earth is your memory that good, Lily? I can't even remember things that happened to me yesterday," Mary grumbled. Coralie was thankful for the distraction, even if it was only for a moment.

"Coralie and I were talking about, books, you see. She gave me some really good recommendations. That's why I remember her face."

Coralie let out her breath and closed her eyes for a split second, calming herself down. Lily wouldn't be able to ever understand how grateful Coralie was for her lie right at that moment.

"You and your bloody books, Lily. I swear, you should just marry them," Kiki teased. Lily and Coralie shared a look as the conversation broke away from the subject.

hr

The castle was beautiful. There were absolutely no words in French or in English that Coralie could have used to describe it. In fact, she was betting that there were no words in any language in the world that would do justice to it. It had stopped her right in her tracks; it had rendered her speechless. She'd been feeling slightly guilty over deceiving her mother, but as she gazed upon the sight in front of her, all that guilt had simply disappeared. This was worth everything.

She looked back at Angus, who wore the same look of amazement that she did – or, at least, so she imagined. The small boat they occupied rocked slightly, but neither of them paid any attention to that whatsoever.

The boat ride did not last nearly as long as they thought it would. Before they knew it, they were walking up the brilliant old staircases of the castle to a set of large doors. Her reading of _Hogwarts, A History_ told her that the Great Hall would be behind those doors, and was also where they would be Sorted.

Once again, Coralie's breath was taken away from her as the doors opened. Like the rest of the first years, her eyes immediately went up to the ceiling. It was dark blue, with a few grey clouds present, but the stars brightened up the whole sky. Coralie had to pinch herself to remember that everything around here was real. Everything was so different from Saint Jeanne's.

They came to a halt in front of the teachers' table, and the young students tittered around them. Suddenly, the room became quiet as a man with long white hair and a long white beard, both of equal length, and half-moon spectacles stood up. Coralie figured he was Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster.

"Before we begin our Sorting of first years," Dumbledore began as silence fell over the students, "we have two new pupils that need to be sorted first. Coralie and Angus Bennett are joining as from Saint Jeanne's Academy of Magic, and will be joining sixth and fourth year, respectively. Miss Coralie Bennett will be sorted first, if you please."

Shakily, Coralie made her way up towards the stool that was waiting for her. With a backward glance at the stern woman, Professor McGonagall, she sat down and waited for the hat to be placed on her head.

"Well, here's something new."

Coralie jumped as she heard the voice in her head, shooting a worried glance at Angus as the voice chuckled.

"It's just me. The hat, pet," she heard the voice say. She had known about the Sorting Hat, but it still felt strange to hear it talking to her. "Now," the hat continued, "where to put you? Hmm… Too much of a troublemaker for Hufflepuff. A will to learn, but a heart that prefers to have fun. Well, then, Ravenclaw's definitely out. It seems to be between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Ahh, yes. I've got it..."

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat roared out loud, and deafening eruption came from the table Coralie guessed was Gryffindor's as she took the hat off and gave it back to Professor McGonagall. She slowly made her way towards the table, where the girls were all cheering and waving for her. They each sent her smiles as she slipped into the empty seat next to Lily. She watched as, moments later, Angus joined her at the table, grinning madly at her as she turned her attention back to the rest of the Sorting.

It didn't take as long as Coralie was expecting. She was fascinated by how the hat managed to pick which students belonged where in a matter of seconds. It seemed no one else in the school shared her fascination; the boys further down the table spent most of the time complaining about their hunger. When it was over (one of the boys had exclaimed in relief), Professor Dumbledore stood up.

"To all the new students, I would like to welcome your new home. Here you will make outstanding memories with lifelong friends, and you will have the chance to become whatever it is that you desire. To all the returning students, I can only promise that I will not make you wait any longer for your food. Dig in!"

The students of Hogwarts needed no further invitation as the food appeared; plates were piled up and up with mountains of food. It wasn't until she had popped a carrot into her mouth that Coralie realized how hungry she really was, and so, soon enough, her plate was covered with an assortment of food.

"That's how you do it," Marlene chuckled, her eyes twinkling over her own pile of food. "It's like you already belong here." A smile grew on Coralie's face, and her heart sped up a little. For a moment, she was a little dizzy. She noted that it wasn't the same kind of dizziness that she had grown used to. This kind of dizziness was good. It was filled with hope. She kept eating, the smile never leaving her face.

**Authors Note: Hello and welcome to 'Tied Together With a Smile'. This is, in fact, a re-write of a story which I started four years ago and finished early last year. Since then, I started the sequel to this story but hit a bit of a rough patch which led me in deciding to rewrite the whole thing- the original is no longer available on my page. **

**If you read the original version, you will notice that this is quite different. While the main plot will remain the same, I have decided to change how, when and why (also some small details) and a few of the characters. So, some characters have been cut all together, others will appear in later chapters but may be slightly altered from the original.**

**If you didn't read the original, then I hope that you really enjoyed this first chapter and that you will let me know what you think and will continue to read my story.**

**Thank you so much for reading guys and I will have the next chapter up as soon as possible.**

**P.S. I am also uploading this version to within the next month or so.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: The OC's and parts of the plot are all that belong to me. Everything else belongs to J.K Rowling, I do not claim ownership to it. Thank you for reading.**

The Gryffindor common room was madness. Coralie had only just made her way upstairs with the girls – except for Lily who was required to show the little first years around (Coralie and Angus had been shown around by their new friends) – when three boys came running through the portrait hole, collapsing on the couches in front of the fire, tears of laughter streaming down each of their faces.

"Did you see that? His face –" one of them managed to spit out between his fits of laughter. Coralie watched the boys with a slightly raised eyebrow. When she turned to see her friends, she noticed that none of them seemed bothered by the boys. Instead, they rolled their eyes and sent the boys pointed looks.

"Honestly, James, darling, could you keep it down?" Kiki sighed, sending a bored look at one of the boys. "Our poor new friend is going to wonder what on earth is wrong with us all!" The boy in question, James, stopped laughing for a moment to stare at Kiki blankly before he turned his eyes to Coralie.

"Oh, hello there. Welcome to Hogwarts!" he said, jumping off the couch and quickly making his way over to where Coralie stood. "I'm James Potter." He stuck out his hand, which Coralie took gently and shook.

"Coralie Bennett," she responded with a soft smile. James grinned widely, pulling his hand away from Coralie and pushing his glass further up his nose.

"Coralie's just moved to England," Kiki added with a grin, her eyes darting between James and the other boys. "All the way from France. She's in our year, obviously."

"France?" one of the other boys asked. He smiled at Coralie, moving off the couch to shake her hand as well. "Wasn't Shelena French as well?" He turned to the last boy, who didn't respond, before turning back to her. "Do you know Shelena?"

The last boy scoffed, still lounging around. "Don't be stupid, Peter. France is a big country. Of course she doesn't know Shelena."

"I might. What's her last name?" She felt sorry for Peter, even though the other boy was right about France being a big country and the very small chance that Coralie would actually know this Shelena – she didn't, but it didn't give him the right to be rude to his friend.

"Lucky you don't know her," the other boy retorted. Coralie had the mind to tell the boy off, though she figured that probably wouldn't make her many friends in the long run. But before she had the chance, the boy had stood up and stormed up the stairs, which Marlene had previously pointed out to her as leading to the boys' dormitories.

"What's got his knickers in a twist?" Miranda remarked dryly; they all watched the stairs with confused looks on their faces.

"I don't even bother asking anymore," James replied, switching his attention back to Coralie. "Sorry about him. That's my best mate, Sirius Black – he's not usually that bad, but I don't even know how to explain what just happened there. I should probably go talk to him. He'll just get worse if he's left alone to brew. Come on, Pete." James sighed, making his way towards the stairs. "It was nice meeting you anyway, Coralie. I'll see you at breakfast, if Sirius hasn't scared you away."

Coralie followed the other girls up to the dormitory, a smile playing on her lips all the while. She liked it here already – she wasn't ready to be scared away just yet.

* * *

_Allisyn descended down the stairs in her ball gown, a long beige coloured dress dotted with little silver beads all the way through. When she reached the bottom where Coralie stood watching her, she smiled, pulling her little daughter Haley, dressed in a simple white dress, towards the ballroom with her._

_Violet followed closely behind; she barely spared her younger sister a glance as she joined the large crowd of people who were forming only a few metres from where Coralie stood. Jacob appeared next, linking his arms with Coralie as he pulled her along. They began to dance; Jacob gave her a twirl, but when she turned back into his arms, his grip tightened on her. She tried to break free to no avail – no matter which way she turned, he was always once step ahead of her, constantly pulling her back and holding her tighter and tighter._

_Then, suddenly, she was free. She turned around with the full intention of telling him off for scaring her so much. It wasn't Jacob. The man that stood before her wore a cruel smirk, his eyebrows rising as if he was challenging her. She tried to move backwards, to get away from him, but nothing would work. He was everywhere, surrounding her._

_Nobody came to her aid. She could see her family watching from the other end of the room: Mum, Allisyn, Jacob, Violet, Angus, and Haley – even her father. They just watched. Violet's mouth had turned up into an unpleasant smirk, and her eyes teased Coralie. She laughed as Coralie turned to move towards them._

_"You don't belong with us," she teased, her eyes twinkling with a sick happiness. Her hand rested proudly on Angus's shoulder. Coralie tried to scream out, but he brought her closer and closer as her family disappeared into a mist._

_"You are mine now," he whispered cruelly into her ear. "You will always be mine."_

* * *

Her breath was ragged and uneven again. She placed her hand on her chest, and her heart pounded uncomfortably fast. She kicked her legs out of her sheets; she had tangled herself in them during her sleep, and now, in her panic, she was finding it difficult to get out. She couldn't escape. Tears flooded her eyes, but she brushed them away, finally finding the strength to free her legs.

Her senses were all mixed up. She didn't know how she managed to get the bathroom until she found herself staring at her reflection in the mirror. Her long, sandy-coloured hair was messed up, half frizz and half tangles. It would require more than a simple brush in the morning to make it manageable again. Her eyes were red and puffy, still stinging painfully. Her arms, barely covered by the T-shirt she wore to bed, were also red, and showed evidence of her nails.

"Coralie?" a voice asked as Coralie leant down slightly to splash her face with cold water from the basin. "Are you all right?" Lily moved further into the bathroom, closing the door quietly behind her as she did.

"I'm sorry for waking you up," Coralie responded. She watched Lily's face carefully in the mirror as she attempted to tie her face back in a ponytail. The band snapped back onto her hair before it flew off, landing somewhere else in the bathroom. Lily stood forward and slipped a hair band off her wrist, handing it Coralie before she spoke.

"You didn't. I couldn't sleep either." Lily brushed it off with a noncommittal wave of her hand. "Was it the same thing as what happened in Diagon Alley the other day?" she asked, worry filling her eyes. Coralie stayed silent for a moment. "It's panic attacks, isn't it? I don't mean to be nosy or anything – I just thought you might like someone to talk to. My mum has them, too." Coralie nodded, letting out a small sigh of relief. "How long have you had them?"

"They're only a recent thing. I never used to have them." Coralie smiled softly, "Thank you. It's nice for someone here to know and understand. My mother was so worried that I'd be alone – apart from my little brother, of course."

"You won't be alone. You've got all of us." Lily motioned to the door. "If you don't want the others to know, I won't tell them, of course, but I promise you that they'll all help you whenever you need it. They all do it in different ways – sometimes you don't feel like they could make it better, but they always do." She paused, let out a deep breath, and continued.

"I speak from experience. I've had a lot of trouble with my best friends, Severus and Shelena. I've been friends with them since childhood, you see; it was always the three of us, even before Hogwarts. But Severus, he's in Slytherin. He called me a – well, he called me a Mudblood last year, and I just… it hurt."

She paused again, and Coralie frowned slightly. Being a pureblood, like most of Saint Jeanne's students, she'd never really heard of the division between the blood statuses. She knew it existed, of course, but the use of the word still shocked her, and it appeared that the same was true for Lily.

"Shelena – well. She always causes trouble. She and Sirius Black are dating. They had this whole thing going on for a while, but they fight all the time. Sometimes it seems like they truly hate each other. Last year, we had this argument over Black – nothing like _that_." Lily closed her eyes for a moment. "He's not good for her. When she's with him, she becomes this mega-bitch. She pretends to be stupid, and she just manipulates everyone and… I don't even know. I told her this, and she told me it was none of my business. We haven't talked since. She's supposed to be here, you see. I thought that when we got on the train today, she would be here, and we'd make up, because we always do."

"But she wasn't?" Coralie interrupted, Lily nodded, her eyebrows furrowing together slightly. She shifted against the basin.

"Then I thought she'd be at the welcoming feast. I thought she'd probably make an entrance or something, and it would be just like it always has been. Then, when she wasn't there, I knew she'd have to be up in the dormitory, but she's not."

"Maybe she's just coming later? Like, tomorrow or something? Maybe something happened with her family and she couldn't come today?" Coralie added, trying to cheer up Lily, who now looked close to tears.

"She won't be. The dormitory automatically adds all the needed beds to the each room. You've got her old one, and there aren't any new ones. She's not coming back this year." Coralie watched silently as a few tears escaped from the corner of Lily's eye; she wiped them up quickly. "She's my best friend. I love all the girls, but Shelena was always my best friend. I don't understand why she's not here."

"I miss my best friend too," Coralie whispered. And she did. She hadn't really thought about until then – she hadn't had the time to – but at that moment, it just hit her. She missed Emma terribly. Like Shelena and Lily, the pair of them had been best friends since childhood, though their friendship had been a little different than the other pair's. They'd never really had an argument. Sometimes they fiercely disagreed about things, but they always managed to make up, just like Lily had said.

"I'm so sorry. I've just spent all this time talking about me when I don't even deserve to." Lily wiped away more of her tears. "You moved to an entirely different country, you left behind all your friends and probably some of your family, and moved to a new school – and here I am complaining about something so... small in comparison."

"Don't be sorry," Coralie replied immediately. "It's actually nice to be able to just listen to someone talk for a while. It keeps everything off my mind."

"What was your best friend like?" Lily asked. She sniffled, using her wrist to muffle it slightly.

"Her name was Emma. We'd been best friends since childhood, too. We went to St Jeanne's together, and we were in all the small classes – we always had been. We were neighbours, too, though we had a couple of paddocks separating our houses. She was the more confident one. She's always been louder – she's really into acting, so it kind of comes along with that. She could be quiet too, though; she liked to read as much as I do. She was an only child, so she used to love spending time with my siblings and me. She still sends me letters when she can, but we've both been very busy lately."

Coralie stopped, a small smile was now spreading across her face. It was a bittersweet sort of smile; after all, she was technically lying to Lily – not about Emma, but about the letters. She hadn't received a letter from Emma since she'd left France, but she hadn't sent one to Emma, either. They weren't allowed.

"That's good. She sounds really lovely." Lily's tears had now disappeared almost completely to be replaced with a smile. "We should probably get to bed; it's so early, and we've got class in a couple of hours."

Coralie nodded. She followed Lily out of the bathroom and back into the dormitory; as she curled back up in her bed, she pulled her pillow closer to her, desperately wishing, not for the first time since her arrival in England, that she was still in France.

* * *

The next morning was filled with regret – not for talking to Lily the night before, but for the time that it had taken out of Coralie's sleep. Not that she had managed to fall asleep afterwards, anyway. It was a strange sort of feeling: She'd been happy to speak to Lily and get some things off her chest, but in a way she still felt like a giant weight was sitting on her shoulders. She wanted to tell Lily the truth – why they had moved here in the first place, why she had her panic attacks, why she really missed Emma so much – but she couldn't.

She'd learnt not that long ago that it was never wise to trust people until you really knew them. Even then, it was best to exercise caution with your secrets, no matter how harmless they may seem. Lily was a lovely girl – they all were – but Coralie knew next to nothing about them all. She knew that James Potter was mad for Lily; that Marlene and Kiki had grown up together in the pureblood circle; that Mary had a serious obsession with Quidditch, despite the fact that she couldn't play herself; that Alice, whom she met late the night before, had a boyfriend named Frank Longbottom who was in the year above them; and that Miranda was training to become a successful Healer.

They had yet to really learn anything about Coralie. This being said, they seemed to genuinely trust her. They'd been so quick to accept her as one of them that it almost frightened Coralie. A voice inside her head, once that sounded suspiciously like her mother, told her that they were just nice girls, and that they weren't plotting against her in any way. But another voice – his voice – told her otherwise. She didn't know which one to believe. She knew which one she wanted to believe, but was that practical? Her mother had been wrong before.

"Are you going to finish that pancake?" Kiki's voice broke her out of her reverie, causing Coralie to stare blankly at her for a moment before looking down at the plate in front of her. One lone pancake, already buttered and covered in strawberry jam, stared up at her.

"Uh," Coralie replied. Beside her, Miranda shook her head and rolled her eyes at Kiki.

"Give the girl a chance to eat her breakfast, Ki, before you try and steal it off her." At this, she turned to Coralie. "Eat it – otherwise she'll steal the food off your plate every day until graduation. Mary made that mistake in first year, and now she can't finish a meal without Ki stealing at least half of it."

"Hey, that's unfair!" Kiki exclaimed, popping a raspberry that she stole from Mary's plate into her mouth; Mary didn't even blink. "I just wanted to make sure that she wasn't going to force herself to eat it. I care about you guys. Really, I do. That's why I always make myself open to donations of the food kind."

"That's not the only kind of donations she accepts," James retorted as he and his friends passed the table.

"Don't be disgusting James," Kiki replied with a scowl. She spared another glance at Coralie's pancake before pursing her lips and turning to Lily, who was doing her best to ignore James.

"I don't think we got the chance to meet last night," a boy with sandy blonde hair said as he took the empty seat beside Coralie. "I'm Remus Lupin. I'm the sixth year Gryffindor prefect, along with Lily. You must be Coralie. Lily was telling me all about you last night. Is it true you moved from France?" Coralie nodded. "That's fascinating. French history is so rich. I'm a bit jealous of you!"

"Don't bore the poor girl, Moony," Sirius intercepted, though he didn't spare a single glance Coralie's way. Remus – or Moony, as he had been so puzzlingly called – made no action that said he had heard his friend at all. Instead, he went on buttering a piece of toast in front of him.

"I don't think your friend likes me very much," Coralie whispered to him, her eyes carefully watching Sirius as she spoke. He didn't appear to hear them at all.

"Don't be insulted. He gets like this sometimes. It's best to just ignore him," Remus whispered back before leaning over her to retrieve the piece of parchment by her goblet of pumpkin juice. "This your timetable?" She nodded. "You've got a selection of the best classes – in my opinion, at least."

"Hand it here. I want to see if I've got any classes with Cora," James exclaimed, sounding very much like an excited three-year-old on Christmas morning rather than the sixteen-year-old on the first day back at classes that he was. "Double Transfiguration first – then Charms, Ancient Runes, Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Double Potions," James read out for the entire group, who had now all fallen silent.

"Finally!" Lily exclaimed, a wide smile appearing on her face. "I've finally got someone else in Ancient Runes. Thank you, Coralie, thank you!"

Coralie chuckled slightly. "Does no one else here do Ancient Runes?" The others shook their heads. "But it's a really interesting class!" Coralie exclaimed indignantly. Ancient Runes had been a requirement at St Jeanne's, and while usually Coralie found that the required classes were dull, she had been surprised to find that she really enjoyed Ancient Runes. In fact, it had quickly become her favourite class. She wasn't alone; both her mother and Allisyn thoroughly enjoyed the class as well. In the case of Allisyn, she enjoyed it so much that it was the career path that she took.

"That's what I've been telling these guys for years, Coralie, but they just don't listen," Lily replied with a small sigh. She sent pointed looks at Marlene and Kiki, who simply laughed in return.

"I personally don't see the interest," Sirius commented dryly. "What do you do in that class, anyway? You just look at words and try to translate them. How do you even know if you're getting them right? You could be translating the thing completely wrong." Coralie pursed her lips at this; it took most of her energy not to reply with a cutting remark, but, once again, she found that someone beat her to it.

"Just because your small brain wouldn't be able to translate a document properly doesn't mean that there aren't people that can," Lily cut across him; her green eyes had become filled with anger within seconds.

"Oh, here are those infamous kitty claws," Sirius responded without blinking once. How he managed to stay so calm when Lily looked so deadly was beyond Coralie.

"Just because something – honestly, I don't even care what anymore – has happened between you and Shelena, that doesn't mean that you have to take it out on the rest of us. Especially Coralie! She's new, for God's sake!" With this, Lily stood up, her anger radiating from her, and stormed out of the Great Hall, a deathly tight grip on her books.

"I should go after her," Miranda said in a whisper. All of the sixth year Gryffindors had fallen silent. Miranda quietly made her way after Lily.

"Well, she blew that completely out of proportion." Sirius broke the silence, whistling as he motioned to the entrance of the Great Hall before stuffing another piece of toast into his mouth. Everyone remained silent, all watching him. Coralie looked on, unable to stop herself from turning her nose up at the way he consumed his food. One by one, they all finished their breakfast and stood up; even after Peter, who had been the last one to finish, Sirius still had half a plate left. "Guys, sit down. I'm not done yet."

"Shut up, Padfoot," came James's response. He spared his best friend one glance before following Remus and Peter to class.

* * *

"Good morning, class, and welcome to your sixth year," Professor McGonagall said. From her place at the front of the room, she carefully eyed each and every one of her students as if she was judging who would pass and fail her class. "This year requires you to work incredibly hard – not just in Transfiguration, but in all of your classes." Behind Coralie somewhere, James sniggered. "That especially includes you, Mr Potter. Now, if you are done interrupting us, we are going to start this year off by learning a new charm: A bird-conjuring charm. As you can see by the board, the incantation is _Avis_. Now, with the person next to you, taking turns in attempting this spell." At this, Professor McGonagall moved behind her desk and began shuffling a few pages around.

Alice turned to Coralie. "Do you want to go first, or do you want me to?" Coralie didn't mind, and so Alice pulled out her wand and completed her two smooth bumps, left to right, waiting for a blue light to appear. After a few unsuccessful attempts, Alice motioned to Coralie to have a go.

"_Avis_," she whispered. Nothing happened. "_Avis_," she repeated, this time with an air of confidence about her. A blue light appeared from the end of her wand, and a small gun-like noise was made a few yellow feathers fall onto the table, but no fully formed birds appeared.

"Nice job," Alice grinned, picking one of the feathers off the table and flicking it into Coralie's hair. She chuckled as Coralie tried to brush it out unsuccessfully. As Alice tried the spell again, Coralie took the time to take in her surroundings.

The Transfiguration classroom was quite big compared to the size of the classrooms she was used to. Like the rest of the castle, it was old – not just the classroom itself, but the things around the room as well. The two-person desks were sturdy, but the carved-in graffiti showed the true age of them. While something like that would have never been allowed at St Jeanne's, she was grateful for the fact that it didn't seem to bother Professor McGonagall. It made the class feel more welcoming. Why this was, Coralie had no idea.

Professor McGonagall was a stern woman, or, at least, that was how she looked. There was something about the way the professor's eyes had softened when she had spoken to Coralie that morning that told Coralie otherwise. The look almost frightened Coralie; it was like McGonagall felt pity for her, like she knew why the Bennetts had moved to England. But she couldn't; it was impossible. Even the headmaster didn't know the true reason behind the move. That was the whole deal.

McGonagall had now stood up from her desk, finishing with the pile of papers that had been in front of her. She flicked them to the side and moved around the room, stopping every now and again to check each student's progression with the spell. No one had yet to successfully complete it, though time still remained for people to do so.

"How are you getting on, Miss Bennett?" she asked when she came to pause in front of the table that Alice and Coralie occupied. "I've been reading your previous essays that your former Transfiguration professor sent to me. I think you'll be fine with the curriculum – not only in my class, but in all your others as well."

Coralie nodded and replied with a "Thank you," but before McGonagall moved on to Lily and Marlene's table, she added, "It's a requirement for all fifth years to have careers counselling with their Heads of House, but as you missed it last year, I'll be willing to schedule you some time, if you feel you need it."

"Thank you, Professor," she replied, as McGonagall's attention was taken away by Lily, who had just managed to conjure a baby bird that began to fly around the room before landing back in front of Lily with a happy chirp.

"Ten points to Gryffindor, Miss Evans." Lily beamed. "Try and conjure a few more, and you will have mastered the spell."

"Lily's generally the first one to get each new spell we learn in class." Alice smiled softly, motioning to Lily before turning her attention back to Coralie. "I assume you've heard of Shelena." When Coralie nodded, Alice sighed. "I think being the best at spells was the way Lily got a one-up on Shelena – she was always the one who got all the attention. I know you never met her, but believe me when I say that her not being here might just be the best thing that's ever happened to Lily."

"I think Lily might feel the same," Coralie responded. Both girls watched Lily carefully for a moment before breaking their concentration on her and going back to their work.

**Authors Note: Hello again guys! I'm sorry that this chapter is a little bit boring, but it's the last chapter of the introductory stuff as chapter three begins the bigger picture of the entire novel. Those of you who read the original may know where this is all going, but I have actually changed a few of the details to make everything run a bit smoother. Could I ask those who did read the original not to spoil anything if you choose to leave a review? Thank you!**

**Also, last time I got a little bit of criticism revolving around Sirius being too rude or whatever like he is in this chapter- there is actually a reason why I'm writing him this way at this point in time, I promise that he will back to his 'usual' self soon. **

**Finally, I just want to mention that the following chapters will probably be around this length in general though some may be longer (such as the first chapter) and others will be shorter (only be a few hundred words at the most). There is a lot to fit into this story so rather than having lots of small chapters, I've decided to attempt fewer larger chapters.**

**Thank you all for reading and I will have chapter three up for you soon.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: The OC's and parts of the plot are all that belong to me. The French fairytales which are mentioned belong to Antoinette Bon (The Lost Children) and Anne Claude de Caylus (Rosanella). Everything else belongs to J.K Rowling, I do not claim ownership to it. Thank you for reading.**

The week passed by in a flash. Coralie found herself fitting in to her new schedule perfectly. She woke up every morning with enough time to get ready, pack all the books she needed for class, and make it down to breakfast with the rest of the girls, still with plenty of time to eat and make her way to whatever class she happened to have first up that morning. She'd quickly learnt where all her classrooms were with the help of her friends; James had even been kind enough to show her a few shortcuts when it came to getting down to Potions, which was held in the dungeons, on time. She was incredibly grateful that her new friends were so willing to help her. It had made things so much easier for her already.

By the time the weekend rolled around, Coralie was more than ready for a break. Back in France, school had worked a little differently. It started earlier and went for longer, though as they lived only five minutes away, Coralie, Angus, and Emma often went home at lunch for the big meal that was the French tradition. It was odd for Coralie to see the English have a more fulfilling breakfast than she ever ate at home; she often craved her usual morning hot chocolate and croissant.

Weekends themselves were very different in England than what she was used to. At home, she would sleep in until a reasonable time, around ten o'clock or so, have her usual breakfast, and then go out somewhere – generally with Emma, but sometimes with her mother, one of her brothers, Allisyn, and, on the odd occasion, her father, during his rare visits. They'd visit cafes, shops, the cinema, art galleries – whatever took their fancy, though one of Coralie and Emma's favourite pastimes was to ride their bicycles through the streets, especially in May, when the annual festival for Joan of Arc took place.

But here in Britain – or Hogwarts, rather – weekends were entirely different. By the time she woke up – a little earlier than usual, at nine-thirty – only Lily and Miranda were awake. The three of them went to breakfast. Coralie expected the rest of the girls to turn up while they ate, but by the time she'd finished a large plate modestly piled with bacon, eggs, tomato, mushroom, and a slice of toast, no one had joined them.

"We were thinking we might pop into the library for a little, give the sun a chance to warm up a bit, and then we'll take you for a little tour of the grounds. Admittedly, there's not a lot to see, but it's pretty this time of the year. Well, it's pretty all year round, but now especially." Miranda had interrupted Coralie's train of thought. By the time her friend had finished speaking, Coralie had brought herself out of her reverie enough to respond.

"That sounds wonderful. Thank you both so much for showing me around. Hogwarts is so large that I don't think I would have even be able to make my way around without your help." She smiled softly at the two girls, who shared knowing looks with one another before they both turned back to Coralie with wide grins on their faces.

"We know you wouldn't have been able to make it around without us – nobody can for the first week or so. Then you get used to all the staircases and whatnot," Lily responded. She paused for a moment as she took a sip of her pumpkin juice. "That being said, sometimes I still manage to get lost on prefect duty and end up in some abandoned corridor. Always entertaining." All three girls chuckled as they finished up their breakfasts and made their way towards the library.

Coralie had yet to find a chance to get to the library though she had been meaning to since her very first day. There was something about libraries that made Coralie feel intensely happy. Ever since she was very young, she had loved reading, both Muggle and wizarding books. She loved _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_, but also some classic French fairy tales, such as _The Lost Children_ and _Rosanella_ as a young girl. But as she grew, so did the types of books that she read. She preferred fiction books (she loved being transported into a different world, a different life – especially at the most difficult times), but in order to please her father, who worked in the international department of the French Ministry of Magic, she'd read biographies on powerful leaders, nonfiction books on subjects ranging from politics to gardening, and the newspaper, both Muggle and wizarding, every morning.

She'd visited many libraries and bookstores in her short lifetime. The one in Saint Jeanne's was quite small in size, but there were plenty of books, and the librarians who worked there adored Coralie for always borrowing books. The town library in Orléans was sufficiently larger: Aisles upon aisles of books spread across the entire floor of the building, a small landing allowing room for more books. Neither of these libraries were anywhere near the size or the pure beauty of the Hogwarts library.

Immediately upon entry, Coralie's mouth dropped open at the sight in front of her. There were rows and rows and even more rows of books on every subject, as well as tables and chairs, some hidden behind bookcases for some privacy and others in the more open areas of the library. If the librarian hadn't given Coralie such a dirty look for her gaping, she might have gone and gotten all her stuff from her dormitory and moved in right there and then.

"Come on, before Pince comes over here and tells you off for gaping at her babies too much," Miranda whispered, pulling Coralie gently by her elbow over to one of the tables slightly hidden from sight. It was from the seat she took that Coralie noticed a closed-off section in the library. She turned to Miranda with a questioning look.

"That's the restricted section," Miranda said. "The books in there aren't really the type of thing that should be falling into the wrong hands. The only way you can get in there is with the permission of a teacher. You need a good reason and a proper note for Madame Pince and all."

"Why are the books here, then?" Coralie asked, her eyebrows furrowing slightly. The whole thing seemed a little bit redundant to her. What was the point of having these books in the library if they weren't the kind of things that students should be reading?

"Sometimes teachers will give people extra work to those who they can trust, and sometimes the only answers are in that section, but they try not to do that very often," Lily answered without looking up from the book in front of her for even a split second.

"Lily gets permission to go in there all the time. You see, Slughorn just adores her," Miranda teased, winking over at Coralie, who chuckled softly.

"Slughorn does not adore me. He just appreciates that I work really hard to get my work done. It's not like he hates you or anything; he's given you permission into there before, I bet," Lily replied, rolling her eyes at her friend, who stuck her tongue out in response.

"I never used that permission slip," Miranda added, lost in thought. She tilted her head to the side and was silent for a while. "I feel... I don't know, weird in there. Or at least I think I would. I'm not sure I want to read any of the books in there."

"Some of them are fascinating," Lily commented off-handedly. "The ones about Potions, that is," she clarified, looking up at the two others girls to make sure that they hadn't thought otherwise. Neither of them had, of course.

The three of them fell into a comfortable silence, which was only broken when Coralie pushed out her chair and stood up in order to go searching for a book to read. Soon enough, she found one interesting to her, and sat back down with her friends, feeling even more comfortable at Hogwarts now that she had a book in her hands.

* * *

"That's the Quidditch pitch there, as you can see by the hoops and all," Miranda concluded, pointing to the area where a few unidentifiable figures flew around in circles. "Are you a fan?"

"Uh, not really. We didn't have any room for a Quidditch pitch at Saint Jeanne's – it was in the middle of town, so we only had a very small courtyard to sit in." Both Lily and Miranda nodded, both seeming genuinely interested by what Coralie had to say about her old school. "People didn't really play it around where we actually lived, either. Neither of my brothers were into sports –"

"How old's your other brother?" Lily asked. "Angus is fourteen, right?" Coralie nodded in response.

"Yes, Angus is fourteen. He's the youngest one out of all of us. My other brother – Jacob, his name is – is twenty-two. My sister Violet is nineteen, and the oldest one of us, Allisyn, is twenty-five," Coralie explained, watching her two friends, their eyes widened slightly.

"There's so many of you!" Miranda exclaimed, causing Coralie throw her head back and laugh in response. "I'm an only child, and Lily's got one older sister. The rest of the girls are pretty much the same, either an only child or with one sibling. Shelena had the most – she had two siblings."

"Do you get along with all of them?" Lily asked, quickly changing the subject from her best friend. "Petunia and I – that's my older sister – we've never really gotten along. Well, ever since I got my Hogwarts letter."

"I get along with all of them, except for my sister Violet. Allisyn's got a daughter, and has her own apartment, so I don't see her all the time. But Jacob and Violet still live at home. Violet wasn't particularly happy about moving to England, so..." Coralie trailed off, twisting the edges of her mouth into a small smile that didn't quite meet her eyes.

"Why'd you move to England?" Miranda asked with a quizzical look on her face. Coralie's heart almost stopped beating at that moment. This was the question that she was most afraid of. It was maybe one of her biggest concerns upon their move to England. Not whether she'd fit in at Hogwarts, or make friends, or get completely lost, but rather how to answer when this question came up. She couldn't exactly tell the truth, now could she?

"Uh, my mother just really needed –" She took a deep breath and brushed the hair away from her face. "She really needed a fresh start, and she thought England would be a good place to do that. My parents are divorced. They have been for a few years now, but it just got too hard for my mum to live in the house that they shared for almost twenty-two years." Finally, Coralie was able to let out a sigh of relief as both girls nodded in understanding and promptly dropped the subject. As far as she was concerned, the crisis had been successfully diverted, at least for now. She'd just have to remember to tell Angus the story she was using.

"Oh, Merlin," Lily whispered, breaking the silence that had fallen upon them. "I think that's Potter up there playing. Can we please go before it's too late and he realises I'm here?" she practically begged, sending both girls pleading looks, turning back to face them after glancing up at James on his broom.

"I think it's a bit too late, Lils," Miranda answered with a slight frown, though Coralie could hear the teasing manner in her voice. It seemed all the girls shared a fondness for putting Lily into situations with James that she couldn't easily escape.

"Fine – you distract him, and I'll meet you back in the dormitory. I'm going to see if any of the others are up yet." With that, Lily made her way back up to the castle, all but running to get away just as James landed and made his way over to the girls.

"Where's she going?" he asked Miranda and Coralie, who shared a knowing look and a chuckle before turning their attention to him and shrugging their shoulders. "She was trying to escape me, wasn't she?"

"Yeah. Sorry, James. She's had a really hard first week of school, and I'm not sure that she's really ready to be asked out a million and one times by you again," Miranda said sympathetically. Despite her teasing manner previously, she seemed genuinely sorry for James, who watched Lily with a solemn look on his face.

"It's the whole thing about Shelena, isn't it?" he asked, turning his attention back to the girls, who both nodded. "Sirius has been pretty cut up about it, too. I don't know what in Merlin's name happened this time, but he won't talk about it at all." He turned to Coralie at this point. "That's why he was so rude to you the other day – he's not very good at focusing his anger on the proper people. I think he actually feels sort of bad about it."

"It's all right," Coralie replied, watching the other figure in the sky, who she now realised was Sirius. "He sort of reminds me of my older brother – he acts a bit like a child sometimes when things haven't gone the way he wants them to." James threw his head back in laughter, attracting the attention of Sirius, who gave them a little wave as he flew down.

"You just perfectly described Sirius. I think you're definitely going to fit in here," Miranda said. Sirius raised his eyebrows as he caught the end of what his friend was saying.

"What makes you think that?" he asked, nodding at Miranda, who smiled in response. "Not that I think you won't fit in," he clarified for Coralie; his eyes had slightly widened in horror. "It's just – it's not something James says very often. I'm sorry for rambling." He paused. "I don't think we've been properly introduced before. I'm Sirius Black, and you must be the lovely Coralie Bennett, all the way from Orléans, France. _Je suis enchanté de faire votre connaissance._" At this, he bowed slightly and took Coralie's hand in his, planting a soft kiss on it, which he held for a few seconds before letting her hand drop again.

"_Enchantée, Monsieur Black_," Coralie replied with a grin, which Sirius immediately copied while the other two looked on, confused. "How long have you been speaking French?" she asked, switching back to English for the benefit of Miranda and James.

"A couple of years – on and off again, of course. _Toujours Pur_ is the family motto, you see." Coralie made note of how his expression darkened at the mention of his family, and how both James and Miranda looked uncomfortable.

"Always pure," Coralie muttered, more to herself than anyone else. Her family had once had a motto, a little line written in the French language that was in use during the sixteenth century or so, but other than the saying being written in the background of portraits, it wasn't used at all. In all honesty, Coralie could barely remember the words.

"Sirius's family is obsessed with blood purity. Many of the Slytherin families are. Sirius, of course, broke away from that tradition," James explained. It was then that Coralie realised they'd all been watching her reaction.

"Of course. I'm sorry – I got caught up in thinking about the Bennett family motto," she responded, smiling softly at the others, who all seemed relieved.

"What's yours, then?" Sirius asked jokingly. "Surely it's better than the Blacks'." James nodded in agreement.

"To be quite honest, I can't even remember it." Sirius barked out a laugh at this, and she continued, "We don't really use it anymore. The first Bennetts came up with it in the fifteen-hundreds or something like it. I'm not sure it'd be really relevant now."

"Hear, hear," Sirius replied, grinning. "Should we head back up to the castle, then? It's probably about lunchtime."

"Is your stomach all you ever think about?" Miranda asked in return, causing all four of them to throw their heads back in laughter. And so the four of them made their to the Great Hall for lunch, Miranda and James walking in front as they talked about the first Quidditch match of the season, which was coming up in a few weekends' time, while Sirius and Coralie walked behind them, Sirius' arm around Coralie's shoulders as he pointed out things of interest to her.

* * *

It wasn't until later that same evening, when Coralie had returned to her dormitory slightly earlier with the purpose of getting at least an hour of reading in before the other girls were going to come up, that she finally had time to reflect on that afternoon. She'd been surprised by Sirius's apparent complete change of personality. Of course, she preferred the Sirius that she had talked to all through lunch today than the Sirius she'd met that very first night and at breakfast on the second day, but there was something about that change that bothered her.

She knew why she didn't trust it. It was because of him. Because he was able to change his personality just as quickly as Sirius had – though, that being said, his had worked in the opposite way. He went from being funny, charming, and handsome to vicious and threatening. That pure look of hatred that had been in his eyes when he looked at her still caused her nightmares. It tightened her chest and made her heart race, the same way it had on that night.

The nightmares were still there every night. With the help of Lily, she'd been able to make sure that she never woke up the other girls with her tossing and turning, and so they were none the wiser. She sometimes believed that Lily had forgotten about them, as well, and had stopped worrying, but then the redhead would look at her in this certain way in the mornings that told Coralie that Lily knew. To her credit, she didn't make a big deal out of it – she sent her knowing looks over the breakfast table when Marlene told her that she looked tired, offered her a hot cup of cocoa before bed on the nights that she was patrolling, and took extra care in making sure that she felt welcomed in all aspects of Hogwarts life. More than anything, when the girls whispered and asked Lily if anything was wrong with Coralie, she never said a word about the nightmares, but rather would just say that Coralie was feeling a little homesick. The girls always believed her, but both Coralie and Lily knew that this excuse would not last forever.

With this on her mind, Coralie let out a sigh and pulled her book close towards her. Flipping to where her bookmark lay, she read each word, desperately trying to lose herself in the world presented in front of her, but her mind would not let her do that. Not tonight. A few more minutes passed, and finally she noticed that she'd just been reading the same sentence over and over again. With a deep breath, she pushed the book away. Her hands came up to rest in her hair.

Closing her eyes tightly, she fell back into her pillow and lay there for a moment. Her mind was racing, filling with thoughts and memories that appeared and disappeared quicker than Coralie was able to make sense of them. After a few more moments of this, she rolled over and buried her face in her pillow. Part of her hoped that she might be able to smother those thoughts out of her or something. When this was unsuccessful, she screamed into her pillow with frustration.

"Coralie? Are you all right?" The door squeaked open as Lily slid through the gap, closing it firmly behind her. When Coralie didn't respond, Lily moved to sit on the edge of her bed and placed a comforting hand on her back. "Are they getting worse?" she whispered, and checked around the empty dormitory like she was worried that someone might be hiding in there and listening in on the two girls.

"I'm so confused," Coralie eventually responded. Lily's eyebrows furrowed slightly at this response – clearly it wasn't the one she had been expecting – but she quickly regained her self-control.

"What about?" she asked, moving Coralie's discarded book out of the way so that she could see opposite Coralie, cross-legged.

"Sirius."

"Black?" Lily asked, her eyebrows knotted in confusion again. She stared at Coralie blankly for a couple of moments, and both girls remaining completely silent. "What about him?"

"I can't understand him at all," Coralie responded, her eyebrows had now furrowed together as well as she stared at a loose thread on her blanket, like it was the answer to all of her problems. "He's been so rude lately, and then today it was like none of that had ever happened."

"Let me tell you a little something about Sirius Black," Lily sighed. With a roll of her eyes, she continued, "Black is just like that. He's probably only now realised that you're actually a really pretty girl, and also new – he thinks that if he's all nice to you now, you'll forget that rudeness and will go mess around with him in a broom closet." Coralie sighed in response, and was silent for a while before she spoke again.

"I'm not interested in him," she responded without blinking. "It just – well, it bothers me. I don't feel like I can trust people who can swap and change their personalities that quickly."

"I'm glad you're not interested in him. He may be better than his family in some respects, but he still treats girls like dirt. You don't deserve that." Lily smiled softly. "As for trusting him, I wouldn't bother. But you can trust me, and the others girls, too. Whatever it is that is haunting you, we won't judge you for it. We'll just try and make it better for you. I'm sorry, but I told the girls I was only coming up here to check whether you were all right or not, and if I don't go back down, they'll think something's up and come and check on us both. I don't think you really want that right now, do you?" Coralie chuckled softly and shook her head.

"Thank you for coming up here anyway," Coralie added as Lily stood up and made her way to the door. She had just opened it and was going to head back downstairs when Coralie called out again, and she stopped in her tracks to turn around. "Thank you for everything. Not just tonight, but everything else you've done for me since I got here. I think you're the only reason I've made it this far."

Lily beamed at her. "You're very welcome, Coralie. I hope you'll stay here – I think we could become really great friends." With this, Lily closed the door behind her, and Coralie was left alone once again with her thoughts.

It was moments just like that one when Coralie was able to see the similarities between Lily and Emma. They were both incredibly sweet and caring, though feisty enough, if someone got on their bad side. The biggest similarity between them, the one that hurt Coralie the most, was how much they both cared about her wellbeing despite knowing next to nothing about her situation. Lily had only known her for just under a week, and Emma had known her for most of her life, but neither really knew anything about what had happened only a few weeks before. The reason why she left France to come to England, what caused her nightmares – they were clueless about those. She'd have to tell them one day. She wouldn't even know where to begin when that day came along.

She didn't have much time to think about this new problem as a light tap of the window broke her attention. She blinked a few times, drawing herself out of her thoughts as she slid off her bed and moved towards the window, where a grey owl with beady white eyes hovered. She slid the window open, watching the owl as it dropped a white envelope at her feet. She half-expected it to stay around – she'd been prepared to shuffle through her trunk in an attempt to look for food for it – but as soon as the letter had been dropped, it flew back out of the window and soon became part of the sky once more.

With a confused glance after the owl, Coralie bent down to pick up the letter. She turned the envelope over in her hands a few times, taking in everything about it. The owl wasn't one she knew as belonging to anyone, but the letter was most definitely meant for it. Her name was written in calligraphy-style black ink. The back of the envelope was held closed with a red seal, but it was also unknown to her. She flipped it over once more to see if she had missed anything that would clue her in as to the sender of the letter, but there was nothing else.

The letter fell gracefully to the floor. The foreign nature of the owl and the writing was all clear to her now. Her heart was racing a million miles per minute – she couldn't breathe, she couldn't move. She was stuck in her place by the window. Lily was downstairs with the rest of the girls; they wouldn't come to check on her again for a while if Lily had told them she was fine. With this in mind, a small sob escaped unwillingly from her lips as she stumbled backwards until she reached the edge of the bed. By the time she had sat down, the tears were escaping from her eyes at such a fast speed that everything around her had become blurry. She didn't think of this; her mind was otherwise preoccupied with the facts of the letter.

He had found her.

**Authors Note: And so it begins. All with a mysterious letter and a few nightmares. I know in the previous chapter that I said this would be the chapter were things really kicked off, but I found that I needed to add a little bit more introductory stuff in before I could get down to the real exciting part. This being said, I promise you that things will pick up a lot quicker than they did in the original version, so those who read that- I swear that you won't have to wait like twenty more chapters for the action to start.**

**Just before I go, I have a question for you all which is- Who is your favourite character so far/who would you like to see more of? I honestly find it so interesting as to who people like the more than other characters, so if you have time- please let me know! I'd like to thank all of you for reading and I'll see you next week with chapter four!**

**P.S. French translation is as follow. Je suis enchanté de faire votre connaissance– I am delighted to make your acquaintance. Similarly, Enchantée, Monsieur Black means 'Enchanted, Mr Black'.**


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